


The joys of coming home

by IaMcHrIsSi



Series: Batfam Week 2018 [3]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Family Fluff, Gen, or what counts for that with the batfam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 13:00:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15510441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IaMcHrIsSi/pseuds/IaMcHrIsSi
Summary: Bruce comes home from a long week of work. However, his kids are behaving strangely...





	The joys of coming home

**Author's Note:**

> Batfam Week Day Three Prompt: Homecoming

There's something to be said for coming back to the Gotham after a long week off planet. Justice League work is important, but at his core Bruce is a Gothamite, he can't stay away for too long.

He steers the Batplane over Gotham's bay. It's early evening, not late enough for patrol yet, and the city looks quite beautiful in this light. The sinking sun somehow... brings the pretty colors back to life, and hides the ugly corners.

He lets himself linger on the image for a moment more before flying towards the mansion. He should be there in time for a nice dinner. Alfred's cooking will be heaven after a week of League kitchen.

He knows something's off the second the Batplane enters the Cave. It's... too quiet, and too empty. It's not patrol time yet, but someone, either Damian or Tim or both, should already be down here. Babs should be bickering with someone over coms. Dick and Duke should be training.

Bruce clicks a few keys, and starts a quick air analysis of the cave. The results are within normal range, a bit high on the oxygen, but nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing that would cause his kids to abandon the Cave.

Carefully, he gets out of the plane. The Cave seems normal. Nothing wrong there, except... except that there is nobody in here, and there definitively should be. Bruce carefully controls his breathing, tries to ignore the dark pit that starts expanding in his stomach. Just because nobody's here yet doesn't have to mean anything's wrong. There could just be... a movie night. Or someone's sick. Duke wanted to visit his uncle at some point, he remembers distantly, maybe that's today. Tim could be at one of his friend's place, maybe Kon or Cassie, and Damian might be out with Jon Kent. Maybe Dick and Babs are out on a date or something.

… Right. Like that's going to happen. Bruce walks over to the Batcomputer and runs a quick trace on everyone's phones. All of them, including Jason's, are shown to be in the mansion. And yet... why are they not here? Why not prepare the patrol?

Shortly, he debates keeping the Batsuit on, but then he changes. Alfred has very strict rules about costumes in the manor, and it would be way too easy to blow his secret if it is something normal. Maybe someone came over?

He does take a batarang into the elevator with him, and a smoke bomb. And a rebreather. Can't be too careful.

Stepping out of the elevator, he is welcomed by silence. Nothing unusual, to be honest, the manor is quite big, and sound doesn't always travel that well. The floor is very clean, of course, as if Alfred would allow for anything else. Still doesn't answer the question of what exactly is going on.

Slowly, he makes his way towards the kitchen. Finally, he hears voices. Many of them. He speeds up his steps, not running, but … well, he _is_ worried.

He finds them in the living room. All of them. Lounging on various couches, awake and talking. Not healthy, not as such, Tim and Dick are especially pale, and Jason (Jason! Here at the manor!) has his right leg in a cast, but... they look okay. Not dead. Not seriously hurt. Not full of fear or joker toxin.

And somehow, they're all in one room together, apparently happy, watching a movie. His kids. Without an impeding crisis.

What?!

“Oh hey, B!” It's Dick who notices him first, and then everyone is staring at him. Bruce is glad he changed. Explaining to these stares why he came up here in the Batsuit is not something he ever wants to do.

“Hello, everyone.” He says, and tries to keep his voice perfectly neutral. Perhaps, if he manages not to annoy anyone...

“I'm so not doing this.” Jay mumbles, and tries to stand up, but Babs slaps him on the back of the head and glares at him. It's the scary Oracle glare, the one that even Bruce has been known to cower under.

“You have a broken leg and a nasty flu. You stay right where you are.” Jason doesn't even say anything. He just shrinks back on the seat. Bruce could hug Babs right now, but if he says anything, he's going to ruin it, and he knows it.

Thankfully, it's at that point that Alfred stands up from his place at the back of the room. Good Alfred, he's going to tell him what's going on. And why Jason has a broken leg and a flu. And why all of them are watching … Fast and Furious together?

“Master Timothy caught a flu four days ago. From him, it has spread throughout the entire family. Yesterday, Master Jason, Master Richard and Master Duke insisted on going out despite being ill. In the course of that adventure, Master Richard was shot in the left shoulder, Master Jason broke his leg and Master Duke suffered a cut on his side. I deemed it necessary to ground them all for tonight, to avoid another disaster.” Alfred's delivery is very dry and very deadpan.

“Hey, that was not my fault. If Dickie here hadn't...” Jason's the first one to protest, despite his broken leg being the most obvious injury. And despite it being Alfred. He's not the last one, though.

“I am not sick! This is merely an inconvenience.” Damian says, looking very put upon despite clearly being feverish. Bruce starts to feel the beginnings of a headache.

“Of course that one's on you, if you'd just looked behind you...” That's Dick. Probably answering to Jason. Probably. Bruce has kind of lost track by now, and it's only been a few seconds.

“Well, you both could have looked after the guy with the bomb, you know?” Duke says, and as ridiculous as this discussion is, Bruce is happy that Duke speaks up. He remembers it when Duke was so insecure of his place here that he'd not said much during family discussions at all.

“Let's blame Tim and be over it.” Steph, but she doesn't mean it. Not really. There's that fondness in her voice that says she's just teasing. Bruce is 89% sure.

“Hey!” And there's Tim chipping in. Within seconds, it's absolute pandemonium. Everybody is accusing everybody, and Bruce just kind of … gives up trying to figure out what's going on.

Suddenly, Cass is standing in front of him. He hasn't heard her approach, which really isn't a miracle considering the noise level in the room. She smiles at him, a genuine, kind smile, and hugs him. Bruce holds her close and closes his eyes for a moment. Sometimes it's really nice that his daughter doesn't need words.

 _Long week?_ She signs when he lets her go. Bruce shrugs. _The_ _usual,_ he signs back. She looks him over critically, and he thinks that Alfred is really rubbing of on her, because she has totally nailed his slightly worried, slightly judging look.

 _Stay with us?_ She signs. Bruce considers it for a moment. There's a report on his week in space waiting to be written, and a meeting tomorrow he should probably prepare, and well, patrol, too, if nobody else is going...

He looks at his children again. They're still bickering, but there's a sense of... peace, watching them. They're not actually attacking each other, there's no malice in their voices. Just sibling banter, he thinks, and it warms his heart in ways he will never admit to anyone.

Cass sees right through it, of course. But well, she's Cass. That kind of comes with the territory.

 _Sure_ , he signs and lets her pull him to her spot on the couch. It's right next to Jason's, he notices. Jason resolutely does not look at him, still busy arguing with his brothers, but he doesn't move away either, so...

“What are you watching?” He asks, raising his voice to be heard over the banter of his children. All of sudden, they shut up. Seven gobsmacked faces look at him.

“You're... staying?” Dick asks, and Bruce almost smirks. It's hard surprising Dick, these days, but when he does, he is always reminded of nine year old Dick finding the Batcave. It is a good memory.

“Isn't there, like, a report to write or a meeting to prepare?” Tim asks, and Bruce is defintively going to have to make sure the kid doesn't go to work tomorrow. He looks like death warmed over. Bruce is aware that Tim is most likely going to be fine, given that Alfred allowed him to watch movies with his siblings, but still. That shade of white can't be good.

“Nobody is going to be on patrol.” That's Damian, looking just as shocked. Bruce is starting to feel kind of annoyed. He does spend time with his kids sometimes, doesn't he? It shouldn't surprise them so much that he'd watch a movie with them after a long week of work.

Then he sees Jason watching him, sees that small bit of fierce hope in his son's eyes, and mentally shakes himself. He remembers blowing patrol of once when Jason was still Robin, because Jason was sick and he didn't want to leave him alone, and how amazed Jason was by being considered important enough to ignore patrol.

“Nothing more important than appreciating home every now and then.” He says, and that look on his children's faces is enough to make him consider a weekly movie night. It would cut down patrol and training time significantly, but if it makes his children look at him like that...

 


End file.
